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AT&T to guard the do not call henhouse

In February, AT&T was the low bidder to help set up and maintain the national do not call list which is set to go active in July. The 6 month, $3.5 million contract is renewable for up to 10 years. Funny thing is that AT&T is topping the Federal Communications Commission's list for consumer complaints in telemarketing practices. In addition, they were the top offender for do not call complaints.

More than one-fifth of the complaints lodged against AT&T were allegations that AT&T did not honor requests to be placed on the company's do-not-call list, the same sort of list that AT&T's Government Solutions subsidiary is being asked to run on a national level.

AT&T spinmeisters claim the numbers are high because they are one of the largest telemarketers, and numbers on a list are things that get lost in the shuffle. Of course, AT&T says they will report themselves if they violate the national do not call rules...but I wonder who will be watching over them. If AT&T cannot cleanup their act when the national list goes live, let's hope the Federal Trade Commission hangs up on AT&T when the contract renewal comes around.